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Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

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Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#171

Post by WesleyJohnson »

A web application where people can go online and post events they saw taking place and/or ask if other people saw such events. I wagered the biggest draw would be people trying to find out more information on crimes and you could possibly partner with local law enforcement like CitySourced is trying to partner with local government.

"My car was stolen today outside of 7-11 between 3 and 3:15. Black dodge truck. Did anyone see anything?" It would be community driven and targeted at locals. I imagined the draw to get people to participate would be to help "clean up" the community. Imagine a centralized resource for people to post about what they saw on 9/11 - assuming the government wouldn't shut you down.

UFO's sightings, missing pets, amber alerts could be other such usages.

Thoughts? I'm seriously considering developing this if it's well received.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#173

Post by run4yourlives »

mynameishere wrote: post #145
frossie wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys know that in Europe this is common? It's called a "bank transfer" and it is trivial to do, just need people's bank account and routing number and yes, people do hand it out. Many (most? all?) bank websites support it. We have newly-arrived Europeans working at our US office that cannot believe people still write cheques here. [Edit since there has been some curiosity: here is who underwrites the scheme in th…

We have these things called "credit cards" where you are protected from fraud, typically get a certain percentage award through a marketing tie-in, and get to earn interest on the monthly float.

You accept credit cards do you? The OP stated that this was a person-to-person transfer.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#174

Post by [deleted] »

Calamitous wrote: post #96

Most people think they're good drivers, even bad ones (thanks, Dunning-Kruger!) I'd like to see a rating and ranking system for drivers. A console in your car with a big red button-- when someone around you is driving recklessly, you target them and punch the red button... they rack up demerits (or frowny faces or whatever) and they can go to a site to see how they rank up, and how people think they drive. Not that i…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#176

Post by akkartik »

Calamitous wrote: post #96

Most people think they're good drivers, even bad ones (thanks, Dunning-Kruger!) I'd like to see a rating and ranking system for drivers. A console in your car with a big red button-- when someone around you is driving recklessly, you target them and punch the red button... they rack up demerits (or frowny faces or whatever) and they can go to a site to see how they rank up, and how people think they drive. Not that i…

I've always dreamt of a big cardboard finger on the roof of my car that I could swivel towards the person I was honking at.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#177

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

DannyDover wrote: post #116

I have always wanted to create a widget that would go into a dishwasher and change color after the cycle was completed. This way, you would always know if the dishes were clean :-) It might work based on heat (drying cycle) or via a reaction with soap.

Hmmm. My wife is always asking "are the dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty?" Maybe I'll build one of these when I'm bored and want something to do. Shouldn't take more than a lazy Saturday morning to do.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#178

Post by GeneralMaximus »

rv77ax wrote: post #132

(not the best one, but just some thought) a website that allow FOSS community to pay up developers based on community request. basic goal : to speed up FOSS development. i.e: let just say that user A want to donate $100 to pay any developer to create a 3D driver for X card. Later, user B want it to and increase the pot $150, and so on, and so on. At some time, some developers take a request and developing it, publish…

This is a nice way to speed up development. The Haiku community already has something like this in place, with bounties at HaikuWare.com and an annual Haiku Code Drive (which is similar to GSoC).

So far, this has worked extremely well.

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#179

Post by ajbatac »

chaosmachine wrote: post #126
frossie wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys know that in Europe this is common? It's called a "bank transfer" and it is trivial to do, just need people's bank account and routing number and yes, people do hand it out. Many (most? all?) bank websites support it. We have newly-arrived Europeans working at our US office that cannot believe people still write cheques here. [Edit since there has been some curiosity: here is who underwrites the scheme in th…

In Canada, we can do bank transfers via email. There's a $1 flat fee. The banks take care of routing numbers, etc, behind the scenes.

What bank is this?

Re: Ask HN - What's your best startup idea?

#180

Post by RobGR »

matthodan wrote: post #38

Add fins to catch the wind on the sides of airplane wheels so that the wheels automatically begin to spin on landing approaches. This should help by reducing the amount of rubber that is lost on landing and increase the useful lifespan of airplane tires.

I knew someone who applied for a patent on that idea in the 1993-1995 time frame ( I can't place the year exactly ). I have no idea if they succeeded in getting a patent or getting it manufactured, but the guy had done enough research to find out it would not be useful to general aviation planes, because the tires on those planes are usually tossed due to UV sidewall damage before wearing out.
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